Consider becoming foster parent: Guestview

Story by Shawn Salamida

If you have ever considered becoming a foster parent, now may be the time for you to take the first step. Not only because the need for loving parents is so great, but also because we are breaking new ground in the role that foster parents play in our child welfare system.

The need is dire indeed. Over the last three years, there has been a 46 percent increase in the number of children in our local foster care system, growing from 905 children in 2014 to just over 1,400 today. Thankfully, many of these children are placed with court-approved relative or non-relative caregivers. But for a large number of them, no appropriate relative could be identified, so they are currently in our licensed foster homes. In some cases, there are not enough local homes that can meet their needs, so children are placed outside of their home community, or even well outside the panhandle area. To read more on this story Click Here.